On the heels of a Shelby County resolution calling for full funding of BEP 2.0 in Tennessee, a school board member in Hamilton County is openly considering the virtues of a lawsuit against the state. The board member, Jon Welch, says that the funding formula is broken and that the school district continues to get the “runaround” from county and state level officials.
An analysis from the Tennessee Ed Report finds that the formula is indeed broken, to the tune of shorting local districts up to $500 million a year in funds. Hamilton county loses out on $14.5 million per year – and we lose even more here in Shelby County.
To top it all off, reports indicate that the state is actually looking to cut sales taxes by 0.25 percentage points, resulting in either less funding for education or someone else. In a state that ranks in the bottom fifth for per pupil spending, this is unacceptable.
In the Hamilton County piece, Welch takes a somewhat uncertain stance, not certain if it would be legal or possible. There is certainly a precedent for such action nationally, however. I did some free-lance research work for a political candidate last summer on an education funding initiative for Shelby County, and here’s what I found as it relates to funding nation wide:
If lobbying efforts fail, the precedent exists for Shelby County to bring a legal suit against the state to compel full funding of BEP 2.0. School boards and local governmental entities across the country increasingly resort to legal action against state governments to compel full funding of their education plans. In the past, courts in Kansas and Washington State have also ruled in favor of local districts and ordered the state to contribute extra funds to education spending. Currently, 10 states across the country have school-finance challenges working their way through state level courts and at least one state (Texas) has recently won their suit for increased funding[i]. However, because of the potential backlash, this option should only be used as a last resort if lobbying efforts fail.
[i] Walker, Tim. Neatoday.com, 2/4/2014. “More School Districts Suing States for Education Funding.” http://neatoday.org/2013/02/04/more-school-districts-suing-states-for-education-funding/
I do believe what I wrote then, that this should only be seen as a last resort. However, in an atmosphere where we are considering cutting taxes rather than increasing them to fund education, it might be that we’ve reached that point. If the state not only fails to fully fund BEP 2.0 this year (as the committee reviewing it has indicated it likely will), the large urban districts from around the state should consider banning together to pursue this option collectively. Something to ponder as we head into this legislative session.
Interestingly, this has happened before in Tennessee. We wound up with BEP (the original BEP) in the first place because of, wait for it, a lawsuit brought by 70 school systems. There’s a lengthy report out there that’s worth a read if you really want to get into the history of legal challenges to our state’s funding system, but here’s an excerpt that I’ll leave you with which sounds very similar to what we’re seeing today:
One of the driving forces behind Tennessee’s Basic Education Program was to improve
equity in funding, something that was driven by a lawsuit brought by something in the
neighborhood of 70 school systems. Those school systems won that lawsuit. Tennessee’s
supreme court found the prior funding formula unconstitutional because it did not
ensure “substantially equal educational opportunity for all students” regardless of which
school system they attended. Taxpayers could not provide equal opportunity in all
school systems with the same level of effort because the state’s funding scheme did not
make up the difference. Areas with richer tax bases could provide a better education
for their children with lower tax rates than areas with poorer tax bases. The supreme
court ruled that inequity unconstitutional and laid responsibility for remedying the
problem at the feet of the state legislature.
By Jon Alfuth – picture from the 2011 Wisconsin Protests. Added for Emphasis.
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